Montgomery County Public Schools will close at the regularly scheduled time today. All school-sponsored afterschool and evening activities are CANCELED. Day care programs in school buildings will remain open as scheduled. Community use activities in school buildings will occur, as scheduled.

Three MCPS teachers have won the Veteran Teacher
Award from the Marian Greenblatt Education Fund and are now finalists for the
MCPS Teacher of the Year Award. The recipients are: Joseph Gannon of Damascus
High School, Jill Raspen of Ridgeview Middle School and Josephine Luster of
Chevy Chase Elementary School. The MCPS Teacher of the Year will be announced
April 21 at the Champions for Children event, sponsored by MCBRE.

The Montgomery County Board of Education is
conducting a national search for a new superintendent of schools. As part of the
search process, public forums are being held on March 4 and 5 to give parents,
staff, students, and community members the opportunity to identify the
educational priorities and leadership qualities they would like to see in the
next superintendent.

MCPS students in grades 3 through 8 and some high
school classes will take the new English and mathematics Partnership for
Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments this year.
The first of two PARCC testing periods will begin on March 3. The new
assessments will provide a better measure of whether students are meeting
grade-level expectations.

Monifa McKnight, principal of Ridgeview Middle
School, has been named the Maryland Middle School Principal of the Year by the
Maryland Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP). Scott Pfeifer,
executive director of MASSP, presented the award at a surprise event at the
school on Feb. 26.